Guimond Anik, Braun Claude M J, Rouleau Isabelle, Bélanger Francois, Godbout Lucie
Centre de Neurosciences de la Cognition, Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Exp Aging Res. 2006 Jul-Sep;32(3):363-80. doi: 10.1080/03610730600699100.
Thirty-five young adult and 38 elderly cybernauts, matched for education, sex, alcohol consumption, and time/day of computer use were compared on a computerized simulation of professional activities of daily living (ADLs). The program quantified performance in terms of speed and accuracy on four major constructs: (1) planning (a 30-item office party script); (2) prospective memory (injections, sleep, phone); (3) working memory (PASAT, D2, and CES analogs); and (4) retrospective memory. Participants had to organize an office party, self inject insulin and go to bed at requisite times of day, do "office work" at unpredictable times of day, and answer the phone that blinked but did not ring (near threshold stimulus). The elderly were markedly and equally impaired on all four constructs (F = 24.3, p < .000). The elderly were also equally and markedly impaired on slave and central executive systems (c.f. Baddeley's model) and on event-based and time-based prospective memory (c.f. McDaniel's model)-findings arguing against a "frontal" model of cognitive decline. This supports Salthouse's concept of a "general factors" decline in normal aging due to diffuse deterioration of the brain. On the other hand, as expected from previous findings, the balance of omissiveness/commissiveness was significantly increased in the elderly sample's error profile. Furthermore, the balance of speed and accuracy was significantly increased in the elderly. This defines limits of the "general factors" model. The elderly also markedly underused a clock icon which had to be clicked on to get the virtual time of day necessary for integrating all the required actions. Prospective memory explained 11% of the aging variance despite partialing out of the three other constructs, making it appear as a golden standard of sensititivity to normal aging-though perhaps provided it be implemented in a distracting, multitask, strategically demanding context.
选取35名年轻成年人和38名老年人作为网络使用者，这些人在受教育程度、性别、饮酒量以及每天使用电脑的时间等方面进行了匹配，让他们参与一项关于日常生活职业活动（ADLs）的计算机模拟测试。该程序从速度和准确性两个方面对四项主要指标的表现进行量化：（1）计划（一个包含30项内容的办公室派对脚本）；（2）前瞻记忆（注射、睡眠、电话）；（3）工作记忆（PASAT、D2和CES类似物）；以及（4）回顾记忆。参与者必须组织一场办公室派对，在一天中的必要时间自行注射胰岛素并上床睡觉，在一天中不可预测的时间做“办公室工作”，并接听闪烁但不响铃的电话（接近阈值刺激）。老年人在所有四项指标上均有明显且同等程度的受损（F = 24.3，p < .000）。老年人在从属和中央执行系统（参照巴德利模型）以及基于事件和基于时间的前瞻记忆（参照麦克丹尼尔模型）方面也同样有明显受损——这些发现与认知衰退的“额叶”模型相悖。这支持了萨尔托斯关于正常衰老过程中由于大脑弥漫性退化导致“一般因素”衰退的概念。另一方面，正如先前研究结果所预期的那样，老年人样本的错误特征中遗漏/犯错的平衡显著增加。此外，老年人在速度和准确性的平衡方面也显著增加。这界定了“一般因素”模型的局限性。老年人还明显未充分利用一个时钟图标，必须点击该图标才能获取整合所有所需行动所需的虚拟时间。尽管排除了其他三项指标的影响，前瞻记忆仍解释了11%的衰老差异，这使其似乎成为对正常衰老敏感的黄金标准——不过或许前提是它要在一个分散注意力、多任务、策略要求高的情境中实施。
